


Nuclear Season

by autumnmariek



Category: Hemlock Grove
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-12
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-02-08 11:38:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1939620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumnmariek/pseuds/autumnmariek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started with an ear piercing scream in the middle of the night. One that was only heard by Denver, Roman, and a small family that lived in a two-story, yellow and green house across town. Denver was on fire, not literally, but kind of literally. Her skin bubbled and became raw with 1st degree burns, and as she rolled and moaned in her bed she could see her white sheets turning a bright red from the blood that was leaking out of her skin. Just as quickly as it came, the pain faded away along with Denvers consciousness. </p><p>He could be a million miles away from her but he could always hear her scream. Why is that?<br/> Roman/OC</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 001

Blank. That’s all Romans mind ever was...completely blank. It had always been an abyss. Everything he had dealt with or seen in his life was sucked into his brain by his eyes and ears and then decoded into absolutely nothing. His fathers death and his mothers odd ways of affection that always made him feel some sort of uncomfortable. But feeling was something that was very rare to him. Love, caring, even liking someone were things that were very hard for him to do. He didn’t care for detail in life. Just drugs, sex, money, and forget his name. However, all this being said...today was different. Today Roman paid attention to detail and the emotional turmoil that followed was far beyond anything he had ever experienced before.

She was a mouse, little in both height and weight and a calm silence always surrounded her. She never stood tall with an overwhelming confidence, she preferred to sink into an invisible presence.

“Denver, is it?” Her round doe eyes snapped up to meet a crooked smile. One that belonged to a boy that she knew had made his way through almost every girl in school.  She nodded breaking her glance away from his face and pulling on the  messenger back that was slung over her shoulder. She turned to quietly walk away but his arm quickly snapped to block her in against the wall. “C’mon now no need to be rude. I'm just trying to get to know you a little.”

Her head was tilted down while her eyes snapped up to meet his, “I'm not interested. Sorry.”

His eyes narrowed as his other arm moved towards the skirt she was wearing. “Well,” She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and silently praying that his fingers weren't trailing where she thought they were. “I beg to differ."

“Is this how you get off?” A voice broke the short lived, half-ass conversation. While Denvers eyes stayed averted to the floor, the jock in front of her quickly took a step back and straightened up. “Kind of pathetic.”

Roman had seen this many times. A jock cornering a mousy little girl, one that was so easily persuaded to test the boundaries of innocence. Though he usually just walked past when seeing this situation seeing the large doe eyes of the girl cornered against the wall clicked in his brain.

The jock shuffled away from Denver and Roman without saying a word, running out of the school's front doors just as the bell for the end of that day rang. Denver took a deep breath and glanced over at Roman. “Thanks.” She’d said before walking the same path the jock had before her. Roman watched her walk away. She reminded him of Shelley in a way, She preferred to be invisible, though it was nearly impossible being how attractive she was.

Roman turned and stared at the placed she had just been standing and his eyebrows furrowed until they nearly met. What just happened? He bounced back and shook off  any thoughts and returned  to his usual blank state of mind. He walked out of the school quickly and almost rolling his eyes at how many panties nearly dropped as soon as the girls got a glance of him. Sure all the girls knew he was completely insane but they also knew he was completely out of this world, jaw dropping, fuckable and he sure was nice to stare at in a boring class. He got in his car and started it, quickly pulling out of the parking lot and heading home. He could already see that head of long, curly hair in the distance. He brought his thumb up to his mouth and chewed it, shaking his head as he drove right by her. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. FUUUUCK. His mind was screaming as soon as he hit the reverse and backed up to where he was slowly driving alongside her.

“Denver.” He said simply, staring over at her. “Like colorado right?” She walked slowly looking at him with a curious glint in her eyes.He had driven this same road after school just as she had walked in and now for some reason he wanted to give her a ride. Though she didn’t know much about sex, she did know that Roman Godfrey liked it. A lot. She was sure a car ride wasn’t the only kind of ride he wanted to give her. “Get in.”

“No thanks.” She said lightly and after 17 years of living right beside this girl Roman realized this was the first time he had ever heard her voice. The soft and smooth flow  of it seemed to fit so well with the way she looked and as much as he didn't want to admit it. Her voice really, kind sorta, definitely turned him on. “I'm fine.”

“C’mon.” He quirked his mouth, his face expressionless as her eyes met his and she stopped walking, Turning a little towards his car. “You live right beside me.”

“Im not like those other girls that are in your car all the time.” He let out a shocked laugh. This little mouse just burned him. A normal person would have been slightly offended by such a judgemental assumption. However, Roman wasn’t normal. Everyone know his daily routine in the front seat of his car and it wasn’t a dance he did by himself or with the same partner every time.

“Denver I’m not trying to fuck you in my car.” For a second he regretted saying her name and the f-word in the same sentence. “Just helping thy neighbor.”

He smiled at her and he knew he had gotten her as soon as her lips pressed together into a thin line. “No funny business?”

She made a stern face as she stared at him with one hand on the door handle. He put a cigarette in his mouth and a hand on his chest like he was giving an oath. “You have my word.”

 


	2. 002

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You choke my throat  
> With words of wonder  
> You make it hard to breathe

It started with an ear piercing scream in the middle of the night. One that was only heard by Denver, Roman, and a small family that lived in a two-story, yellow and green house across town. Denver was on fire, not literally, but kind of literally. Her skin bubbled and became raw with 1st degree burns, and as she rolled and moaned in her bed she could see her white sheets turning a bright red from the blood that was leaking out of her skin. Just as quickly as it came, the pain faded away along with Denvers consciousness.

Denver awoke in the morning with a small gasp and the honk of a horn for the second time in a row snapped her head towards the window. She quickly got up and peeked out of the window. Roman was leaning against his car and lighting a cigarette, he didn’t say a word as their eyes met. Denver quickly turned around, realizing that she needed to get ready for school.

She froze before she could take another step. “What in the world?” She questioned herself as she stared down at her bed. It was covered in splotches of blood. She brought her hands up to her face and let them trail down her arms. The blood dried and cracked as she clenched her fists. She ran to the bathroom and quickly got in the shower. She rubbed her arms vigorously with a bath sponge watching as the water below her turned red and swirled down the drain. 

“Denver!?” She heard her mom yelling her name as she banged on the bathroom door. Denver got out of the shower and dried herself off. Her damp skin clung to the fabric of jeans and shirt as she pulled them onto her body. “Are you okay?”

Denver slung the door open before starting to braid her hair into a messy, wet french braid. “Yeah, Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Her moms eyebrows furrowed as she looked at her daughter like she was crazy. “There is blood all over your bed sheets.”

“Oh.” Denver nodded and looked over at her bed again, “Right.” She finished off her braid, wrapping a black hair tie at the end. “Im fine, just had a menstrual accident thats all.”

“Thats an awful lot of bloo-” Denver cut her mom off by kissing her on the cheek. 

She pulled away from her quickly, “Bad cramps, I was rolling around everywhere. Nothing to worry about!” She grabbed her backpack off the floor and looked back at her mom hoping that she took the lie without anymore questions. She saw her mother shrug and Denver sighed with relief, “I’ll see you after school. I love you, bye!” 

Denver slowed down her fast pace when she made it to the front door so she didn’t seem so eager to be in the presence of Roman. Although it was a thrill for someone like Roman Godfrey to be interested in hanging around her, it was also intimidating. She had heard all about him. The cocaine lines in between classes and that story that spread like wildfire that he had skipped class to give a girl oral while she was one her period in the girls bathroom. Rumors were rumors, but with Roman Godfrey it was so hard not to believe them. He loved mysteries so much that he became one and thats what kept people coming back to him for more. Though Denver had told herself she’d never be one of those people, she was surprisingly pleased that yesterday wasn’t the last time she’d ever hold the attention of Roman Godfrey. 

“How’d you sleep?” He blew out the smoke in his lungs through a small part between his lips and flicked the cigarette on to the sidewalk. Roman forced himself to ignore the strong smell of blood radiating off of Denver. It was like she had taken a bath in blood but there wasn’t a drop on her.

“Not as well as i’d have liked to.” She scanned his face, her head tilted up to look at him. He was so tall, times like these made her realize that 5’4 was ant size to anyone a whole foot taller. He took the backpack off her shoulders and through it in his backseat before ushering her into the car.

“Yeah me neither.” He replied, putting the car into drive. “I felt like I was on fire all night.” Her eyes widened and snapped over to look at him. “What?”

“Uhm, nothing.” She shook her head telling herself that it was just a coincidence that he felt like he was on fire but she actually was. Like he was feeling her burn. “Everything is fine.”

She turned her head to look forward and though Romans eyes should have been on the road he couldn't help but stare over at her and try to read her like a book. “Denver?”

She looked over at him, meeting his eyes again. “I had a nightmare inside a nightmare…”

She mentally slapped herself at how stupid she must have sounded. “Tell me about it.”

Denver was so busy trying to sort out how to explain what had happened last night into an explanation that made sense that she didn’t notice Roman had passed the high school. “A house was on fire, completely engulfed in flames.” She licked her lips and looked down, shaking her head, “I woke up screaming and every inch of my body was on fire, literally, I was on fire.”

Roman slowed down his driving and his attention averted out the driver side window. “What did the house look like?” 

“It was a yellow, two story window house.” She cringed as she remembered seeing the house completely engulfed in flames.

“With green window frames?” He questioned and her heart caught in her chest while a hard ball formed in her throat. He had the same nightmare as her?

“Yeah.” She looked at him her breathing slightly labored, “How did you know that, Roman?” 

“I think the real question is, “He glanced over at her and she followed to where his hand was pointing out the window. “How did you know?”

The house was for the most part damaged. However, the wall of the right house still stood. Though parts were slightly charred from the heat of the fire, it was still apparent that the house was yellow with green window frames. “I-I-I…”

She couldn’t get a word out as she became to panic. “Shhh.” Roman said grabbing her hand and rubbing her knuckles, trying to help calm the panic attack that was rising inside of chest. He beckoned Sheriff Sworn over to his car.”What happened?”

“Intentional gas fire as far as we can tell.” He had a sad vibe about him that made Denvers chest grow tighter. “We’re arresting the mother for homicide.”

“She admitted to killing her family in a house fire?” Roman asked suspiciously. Knowing that no one in Hemlock Grove would ever admit to murder. There was too much crazy shit going on in the town and a crazy housewife setting fire to her family just didn’t sound strange enough for him to believe. 

“Of course not.” He replied almost as if he read Romans mind, “That would be just too easy wouldn’t it?” His tone grew more frustrated as the conversation progressed, “Only the families teenage daughter died in the fire. The mother claims something told her that her daughter was about to die moments before it happened, The father told the daughter to stay in his room while he took the mother outside to talk and the house exploded like a grenade.” 

Denver couldn’t stop the tears from pooling out of her eyes. “Can we just go please?” She pulled her hand away from Romans. A jolt went through him as he saw the first tear drop off her cheek and hit her jeans. She wasn’t supposed to cry, he thought to himself, Denver was a good girl and good girls don’t deserve to cry, right? But Roman had never paid attention to good girls so what the hell did he really know? Denver broke his thoughts, making him realize he had been staring at wet tear drop stains on Denver's pants.. “I don’t want to see this anymore.”

Roman could see that she was pissed at herself for being scared and emotional around him. He hated getting sentimental with people and talking about feelings. Mostly because he didn't really have feelings and he didn’t ever ‘spend quality time’ with a girl who got caught up in feelings. Denver was different then other girls. He told himself. She probably felt every emotion in the book at least 3 times a day. “It was just a nightmare and a coincidence, Denver. It’s Hemlock Grove there have been stranger things.” 

She stayed silent and kept her eyes casted down to her hands. They were parked in between both of their house now. He wasn’t going to take them to school in the first place and he certainly didn’t forget that Denver wasn’t like the other girls in his car. Besides he had only promised he wouldn’t fuck her in his car. His uncle Normans desk at work wasn’t Romans car after all. He had planned to see how long it took her to break but the plan had shifted. “I think I’m just gonna go upstairs and go back to bed, when I wake up I’ll pretend this all never happened.”

Roman opened his mouth to stop her as she got out of the car, but his vocal cords froze. He realized that there wasn’t much to do with a girl in his car besides his usual tradition. Since they were cutting school the only other option would have been his house and he wasn’t planning on bringing a girl home anytime soon, even if she was just his next door neighbor. It was like an oath he had made to himself, “I have never to this day invited a girl into my bed or even into my home and I won’t be doing it anytime soon.” He said It aloud once and repeated it in his head about 10 more times. But he still couldn’t keep himself from thinking that the round teardrop stain on Denver's jeans was really a melted drop from the block of ice surrounding his heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Not many Roman/OC fanfictions out there. Hoping to get some feedback and see how people like it. I have a couple of twists that I want to add to the Hemlock Grove series. Please let me know how you like it.


End file.
